Revere shakes off jitters in first home start

PHILADELPHIA — New Phillies leadoff hitter Ben Revere was in overdrive in the hours leading up to his Philadelphia debut.

“I’m really excited,” Revere said. “It’s going to be a big festival today. You always get goosebumps, but after your first at-bat it’ll be all gone. Then I’ll be ready to go and everything.”

True to his word, Revere, 24, seemed a bit jittery in his first Citizens Bank Park at-bat Friday, striking out to lead off the bottom of the first. But he shook that off fast in the top of the second, making a diving catch on a sinking liner by the Royals’ Mike Moustakas.

“You see highlights, you see everybody cheering,” Revere said. “Everbody’s really pumped up here for the new season. I hope everything works out.”

Maybe it will eventually, but on this day it would only result in an 13-4 defeat to a Royals team that finally seems capable of hitting like a major league club.

Before the deluge, however, manager Charlie Manuel was happy to see Revere pumped up to be at the top of the Phillies lineup. Leading him off with Jimmy Rollins batting second, Manuel said, is something that brings a touch of needed speed and balance to an order already too top-heavy with lefty swingers.

“I look at it, and it’s almost like having (Juan) Pierre in leadoff, like last year, and Jimmy hitting second,” Manuel said. “Jimmy has a stronger bat when you’ve got runners in scoring position ... because Jimmy gets extra base hits. For a leadoff hitter to have the RBIs (Rollins) does down through his career, that speaks for itself. And Ben can get on and steal a base. I think he’s more apt to do that right now because of his speed. ... So right now, that kind of works.”

Against lefties, of course, Rollins is hacking as a righty. But Manuel figures he has little choice but to keep him as the No. 2 hitter for that very reason, and because Domonic Brown is an every-day player now hitting behind Chase Utley and Ryan Howard.

“If we hit Ben second there, that’s three lefties in a row,” Manuel said. “Then we’d have (righty) Michael Young hitting fifth and Brownie hitting sixth. That’s four out of five in a row. We’d still have a problem matching up.

“Somebody was asking me the other day if I’d every thought of switching around some of those guys,” Manuel said, “and no, I haven’t. I mean, who (else) am I going to put there?”

As for Rollins not leading off, Manuel said that hasn’t been an issue with his veteran shortstop.

“Jimmy’s never given me any problem about where he’s hitting in the lineup,” Manuel said.

Manuel was probably a bit optimistic when talking about Kyle Kendrick before the game. Six Phillies seasons behind him, Kendrick started what’s planned as a full season for him as a full-time starting rotation member by starting the home opener.

Asked if he thought Kendrick is more equipped to handle that than he once was, Manuel said with a curled lip, “If he handles it good today, then he’s equipped. If he doesn’t handle it good, then what are you going to write, huh? ... That’s my answer, I guess.”

One long laugh later, Manuel said, “No I think he’ll do good. If he gets by the first two or three innings, I think he’s going to give us a good chance to win the game. But I think sometimes he gets hurt early and he’ll give up some runs before he gets out of it. But if he gets through two or three innings he’ll do good.”

As it turned out, pretty much the opposite happened Friday.

Kendrick breezed through his first four innings as the Phillies built a 4-0 lead. But after getting the first out in the fifth he gave up three straight singles as the Royals loaded the bases. Kendrick would be one strike away from getting out of that jam unscathed when Eric Hosmer stroked a two-run single to halve the lead.

Then in the fifth, the Royals loaded them up again with two outs, and Kendrick left the game in favor of reliever Jeremy Horst. He promptly gave up a three-run triple to Alex Gordon and the Royals were on their way to a rout. Kendrick’s good start deteriorated into an outing of 5 2/3 innings pitched with eight hits and five earned runs allowed.

This being a rare Phillies-Royals series, it seemed a particularly good idea to have all-time third basemen alums Mike Schmidt and George Brett open the series by throwing out first pitches. Adding Joe Piscopo to the mix ... not so much.

The Saturday Night Live alum whose career timeline (but not success ratio) almost parallels that of the two all-time third basemen just kind of happened to be there. He was also at a statue unveiling of his friend, Bernie Parent, and Bob Clarke across the street last weekend.

Smartly, Piscopo sat out the subsequent press conference with Schmidt and Brett just after the game started. Talk there went from questions of players from the Steroid Era not getting voted into the Hall of Fame this year to mixed recollections of the 1980 World Series, in which both 60-something players got some of the memories skewed.

As for the perceived Steroid Era blackballing, Schmidt said he expects Craig Biggio and Mike Piazza to both eventually get into Cooperstown.

“I believe they’ll both get in the Hall of Fame in the next year or year after,” Schmidt said. “For sure, Biggio. They’ve got a little bit of a hill to climb next year.”

That’s because former Braves pitchers Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine will be eligible. But as for names like Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds ... well, good luck.